1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to air chamber mounting brackets and in particular to an improved air chamber mounting bracket for an air operated, cam actuated brake wherein the rotary cam is selectively rotated by an air chamber, or air motor, through a lever body, usually a slack adjuster lever body, which may be of various predetermined lengths.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Air or fluid actuated brakes wherein a rotary actuating cam, such as an "S" cam, a lead screw member or the like, is selectively rotated by a fluid motor, such as an air motor, an air chamber, or the like, through a lever body, such as the body of a slack adjuster, are well known in the prior art Examples of such brakes may be seen by reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,497,037; 3,507,369 and 4,208,798 all of which are hereby incorporated by reference. It is also known that the slack adjusters, which are often supplied by a different party than the brake manufacturer and/or are often changed in the field, come in different predetermined lengths. For example, slack adjusters, which may be automatic or manual, are presently commonly commerically available in the United States in 5.0 inch, 5.5 inch, 6.0 inch and 6.5 inch lengths. The lengths are usually selected in view of torque requirements for a particular vehicle.
As the air chamber must be mounted at a particular location on the air chamber bracket for each slack adjuster length, and as the length of slack adjuster to be used in connection with a particular brake is often not known at the time of assembly of the brake, universal air chamber mounting brackets having a separate set of mounting holes for each slack adjuster length have been proposed. An example of such a universal bracket may be seen by reference to U.S. Pat. No. 260,758, hereby incorporated by reference. While such prior art universal brackets do allow for proper positioning of the air chamber for various length slack adjusters, such brackets were not totally satisfactory as a plurality of very accurately positioned sets of holes was required making the manufacture very difficult and expensive. The use of two slots has been proposed, but this has not been satisfactory as the slots do not provide a positive position for the air chamber.